Hello Squirrels and a happy Monday and a happy first of the month to you!
I hope you are ready to dive into your final week of home learning. I hope you are ready to dive into a new month. I hope you are ready to dive into Spring! Here is a Squirrel who is ready to dive into all those things and more!
Hello Squirrels,
It's good to be back. I hope you all had a nice, relaxing half term. I am delighted that we will all be back at school soon. I've started to notice more and more signs of spring. There are daffodils blooming in my garden and I have seen lots of snowdrops and crocuses around on my mine and Daphne's walks. I have also noticed blue skies and milder weather which felt delightful.
There have been some exciting developments since I was last in touch.
See our chickens before they hatch
I would like to introduce you to our feathery friends. They hatched on Sunday 21st February and will be joining us in school shortly after we return. Now is a good time to start thinking of names for chickens as we will need to name them. Please write your ideas down and send them to me.
Meet the chicks at virtual forest school here
Please keep your eyes peeled for signs of spring. Keep and eye on the weather as well. If you remember, it was only a few weeks ago that it was freezing and we had snow. Think how the weather has changed and what you enjoy about certain types of weather. How does it make you feel? Share these ideas with your grown ups and listen to what weather conditions/seasons they like and why.
The Smartest Giant in Town Yoga
Have a wonderful weekend Squirrels and I will see you on Monday! Love from Miss Cartwright
Hello Squirrels and happy Thursday to you.
I don't know about you but I feel like this week has whizzed by really quickly!
I'm sure you are all taking plenty of snack breaks during the day at home, but here is a squirrel reminding you to snack on fruit, veggies and healthy things (not crisps, chocolate and sweets!).
Eating healthy food and getting exercise every day will help your body and mind feel good.
Now the weather is a little drier, why not try a bike ride somewhere?
Don't forget the wonderful Reverend Dove's assembly will be at 11am. I hope to see you there!
From Miss Cartwright
Good morning and happy Wednesday to you Squirrels. How are you today?
I'm going to whisper this quietly so we don't scare it away... I think Spring is finally here!!
I'm seeing lots of beautiful snowdrops, daffodils and crocuses flowering around my village and in my garden. When I went for a walk in the sunshine yesterday, I got too hot in my coat! All of this makes me very happy indeed.
I can't wait to do lots of outdoor learning with you when we get back to school and (hopefully) enjoy the spring sunshine.
Hello Squirrels and a happy, happy Tuesday to you!
The fantastic news is that we will all be coming back to school on Monday 8th March. I CAN'T WAIT! I am really looking forward to seeing you all in person again. I think these squirrels shows how we are all feeling right now:
Hello Squirrels! How are you? I hope you had a lovely half term. I have missed you!
My half term was very quiet but filled with books and dog walks, which is always good. Here is a picture of Axel in his raincoat on a drizzly day:
"Chick chick chick chick chicken... lay a little egg for me"
Fabulous Friday 12th February
Hello Chickens (Squirrels),
Today is the last day before half term. I do hope you have had a good 'no pens week' and that you are looking forward to a bit of a rest from all the home learning that you have been doing so well.
Well done to those of you that embraced the elements last week and went out to do your forest school session. Some great tree measuring and comparing and also some great nest spotting.
I went for a walk on Saturday and found plenty of nests high up in some tall oak trees. I also heard a very noisy woodpecker hammering on the tree trunk which was quite lovely. Up above me, two Red Kites circled and I also recognised the song of a great tit - here is a reminder of the great tit bird song.
Although it has been a bitterly cold week I have been thinking ahead to spring... I have been thinking about the pond and how lots of you enjoy pond dipping. I am hoping to make it even better for when you return to school such as adding plants that provide oxygen which will hopefully help us discover more pond insects by creating a thriving ecosystem.
Of course, the other very exciting bit of recent news is the soon to arrive chicks. This is where your help comes in Squirrels - together we need to learn how to look after chickens. Please have a look at the link as you will find some helpful information on it.
Love Miss Swain and Daphne
In case you get to the middle of half term and feel a little bit bored, here are some ideas for screen-free home learning.
Enjoy your well deserved rest Squirrels and I can't wait to catch up with you after half term!
Love from Miss Cartwright
Hello Squirrels and happy last-Thursday-before-half-term to you!
If you're really still and focus really carefully, I think you can actually see half term... it's almost here!
What an incredible bunch of explorers you have been this term and what amazing miniature rainforests you made yesterday! I hope you feel proud of yourselves explorers. Today you have one final job...
Hello Squirrels and happy last-Wednesday-before-half-term to you!
You thought of some amazing adjectives to describe your Amazon Rainforest adventure in 3 words yesterday. I am impressed! I'm also really enjoying the creativity that you are approaching this week's work with, keep it up!
Good morning to you Squirrels and happy last-Tuesday-before-half-term to you!
I hope you had a fun day yesterday and enjoyed watching the snowflakes that tumbled down from the sky all day (even if they didn't settle!).
It was great reading your emails about how you overcome the problems in the rainforest, including those cute but pesky Tamarin monkeys!
Some of you baked to apply your maths measure work and some of you made obstacle courses that sounded like a lot of fun too. I can't wait to see what you'll get up to today!
Hello Squirrels and a happy last-Monday-before-half-term to you! I hope you had a good weekend and kept busy.
This is the beginning of No Pens Week and none of the activities on the blog this week need you to use a pen or pencil or write anything down. There's going to be lots of drama, exploring and investigations instead.
You will still have two jobs a day to complete. One will be a mantle chapter which will be released daily and one you can choose from the 4 activities below. You can either send me photos, videos or just explain what you got up to in an email instead.
For Wednesday's mantle chapter you will ideally need a shoe box or large cereal box. See if you can save one from the recycling today so you've got one ready!
Hello Happy Hedgehogs and Super Squirrels
Welcome of Forest School
Thank you to those of you that completed the Big Bird Watch, I have submitted the results to the RSPB and together we have made even more progress towards our bronze certificate. We are over halfway now so well done! Let's see if we can complete enough challenges between us this week to achieve the bronze certificate.
As we have spent the last few weeks looking at and listening to birds I thought we could move on to looking at trees as these are so important to birds for many reasons. Can you think why? Not only do they provide food sources like nuts and berries but birds also like to build their nests in trees. February to August is the time of year that birds build their nests so you could start looking out on your walks to see if you can spot any birds' nests. If you do see any, please can you send me a picture? I shall be looking out on my walks and also at forest school to see if I can spot any.
Did you know Squirrels and Hedgehogs... that squirrels actually build nests in trees? Squirrels' nests are called dreys and they look like this. They are typically built where tree branches form a fork (like a V shape)
A challenge for you squirrels (How to make a barometer). Hedgehogs, you are very welcome to try this one at home. It is a fun activity (adult support required).
I hope you have a super, duper weekend
Love from Miss Swain and Daphne
Good morning to you, my favourite type of Squirrel!
I had such a great time zooming you all yesterday and I have really missed you! Lots of you are looking very grown up...
I will say it again and again, you are all doing a FANTASTIC JOB! I am a very proud teacher and I hope you can keep going until half term.
Optional report writing template
**Adult Squirrels! Some children wrote very detailed notes on Tuesday about their creature that is almost a report already. Instead of writing a brand new one, please work with them to edit and improve what they have already written, focusing on spellings, openers and conjunctions. Thank you!**
Sorting un- and dis- worksheet
I will be sending any resources and follow up emails from yesterday's zoom sessions today.
After zooming all day yesterday I went for a much needed walk and saw a beautiful sunset, which I thought you might like to see too!
Hello to you Squirrels!
I can't wait to chat to you all on Zoom later today. There is no mantle chapter or maths video today but I have got a couple of suggestions to keep you busy when you aren't on Zoom today:
Read, read, read!
Hello Squirrels and a happy Tuesday to you.
I hope your week is off to a good start. I'm really hoping Spring is on its way now. I spotted snowdrops when I was walking at the weekend and daffodil shoots have started to come up in my garden.
Hello Squirrels, The classroom is now looking very Christmassy and the excitement levels have been taken to a whole new level. That said, ...
